HUNTING AND HUNTED IN BELGIAN CONGO 



have to travel through a country where the sight of a 

 white face excites the savage minds of the people who 

 ever since the advent of Europeans have been subjected 

 to ill-treatment by roaming bands of troops with irre- 

 sponsible officers under an equally irresponsible adminis- 

 tration. Is it any wonder that the white man is hated 

 by these poor wretches, many of whom have fled from the 

 far interior around the Congo Basin and have come 

 eastwards where, on hearing the news that a Belgian 

 Patrol is running riot, they can take refuge in the moun- 

 tains in Soudanese territory until the storm has passed ? 

 The shouts of " Kwa Heri, Kwa Heri Bwana " (good- 

 bye, master) dwindled away as we fast left the village 

 behind, and were soon lost to sight in the long grass and 

 trees through which our path led. About a mile from 

 the village we were joined by eight or ten warriors, whose 

 bodies and limbs were smeared with red earth and 

 glistening with oil. They were armed to the teeth with 

 spears and bows. They had been sent by the chief 

 ostensibly for the purpose of escorting me safely to the 

 borders of his country, and travelled until nightfall with 

 us. In the long grass and dense timber it was impossible 

 to make out in what direction we were really travelling ; 

 for the native paths here, as elsewhere in Africa, twist and 

 turn in every conceivable way. I knew, however, that 

 Lonely Hill lay south-east of Lodo. We marched all 

 that day through heavy hilly country, thickly covered 

 with trees in whose branches troops of monkeys swung 

 from tree to tree. Treacherous fast-flowing rivers had 

 to be forded at suitable spots, or crossed by means of a 

 tree felled and thrown across. Now and again beside the 

 path there lay the snow-white bones of antelope, eland, 

 and cattle, while in one place the mighty bleached bones 

 of an elephant lay scattered in every direction. As we 

 neared a village little graves stood here and there, marked 

 by a small pile of shells, eland horns, and pieces of pottery ; 



214 



